By Jere Stocks
Thursday, June 21, 2007

Montgomery County's first hospital, Washington Adventist, is celebrating 100 years of providing local health care. Administrators of the 285-bed acute-care hospital in Takoma Park recently announced plans to relocate to the White Oak area and keep the existing site. They must receive approval from state officials. Montgomery County officials say they are studying the impact the move might have on residents.

Jere Stocks, the hospital's president, writes about its history and its future.

Imagine celebrating your 100th birthday and anxiously waiting to see what the next 100 years has in store.

That's what we are doing this year at Washington Adventist Hospital as we mark our first 100 years of providing health care for a growing community. At the same time, we are creating a vision of how we can serve the community for our next 100 years.

Founded as the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital on June 13, 1907, by Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, Montgomery County's first hospital had 40 beds and provided care in a tranquil setting. At the time, Takoma Park was a resort community with homes dotted among trees. One of the hospital's first major investments was the purchase of a local dairy farm to obtain fresh milk for patients.

The hospital has been first in many ways. It was first to emphasize the importance of wellness and the dangers of smoking. It was the first in the county to offer a complete cardiac care center, which now performs 600 open-heart surgeries and more than 8,000 heart catheterizations each year.

The hospital, our community and health care have changed over the years. The hospital provided training for nurses and medics during World War I and introduced ambulance services in 1924.

In each of the past four decades, the hospital has made significant investments to expand, increase the bed capacity and introduce new technologies and services to meet the growing health-care needs of the region. Although health care has changed in the past 100 years, the mission of the hospital and our commitment to quality of care have been constant.

Today, our hospital's 2,000 employees and more than 600 physicians remain focused on our mission to deliver excellent health care to all, regardless of ability to pay.

Our 285-bed hospital stands on the grounds on which our first hospital was built. We have opened our doors to patients and families for generations and watched as our region has grown.

In 2005, the hospital initiated a strategic vision to improve access to health care and provide for enhanced facilities and services. One step we took to ensure that this Vision for Expanded Access ( http://www.expandedhealthaccess.com) was broad and inclusive was to create the Adventist HealthCare Center on Health Disparities with three areas of focus: increased services for underserved populations, a research program to identify and promote best practices, and an education initiative to improve the ability of caregivers to provide quality care to those populations.

From our discussions with the community, we also saw a need to increase the availability of care and services beyond the hospital's walls. This lead to health-care partnership programs with MobileMed, Mary's Center for Maternal and Child Care, Casa de Maryland and People's Community Baptist Church.

Another key element of the Vision for Expanded Access is moving Washington Adventist Hospital to a new location.

Our current location in Takoma Park is difficult for patients and emergency vehicles to reach. Our campus was once surrounded only by a creek and trees -- now there are established residential areas with narrow two-lane roads as the only access points to the hospital. There is inadequate space on campus or in the surrounding area for the infrastructure that supports a hospital's activities.

But in health care, as in many aspects of our lives, change is inevitable and change can be positive. For our patients, doctors and staff, and the communities we serve, this change is a must.

This spring, the hospital purchased 48 acres in the White Oak area to relocate the facility. The new location, off Route 29 bordering Prince George's County, is approximately six miles from the current location. The new location is in the center of the hospital's primary service area and located along major interconnecting roads, making it central and more accessible to all of our patients and to Montgomery and Prince George's communities.

While we are moving forward with plans to relocate the hospital, we will be retaining the campus in Takoma Park for the redevelopment of health and community services for the immediate community.

We cherish our 100-year tradition of playing an integral role in the region's health-care safety net. To continue as an effective health-care resource for all, we must make sure Washington Adventist Hospital remains strong and viable.

All of us at Washington Adventist Hospital look at the past 100 years with pride. And we look to the next 100 years with the desire to provide quality health-care services to all in the communities we serve.